Out of date letter from teacher after examination is in verse? (10)
I believe the answer is:
retrograde
'out' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'of date letter from teacher after examination is in verse?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is present in the answer.
'date' could be 'ad' (AD is an example) and 'ad' is found within the answer.
'letter' could be 't' and 't' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for retrograde that I've seen before include "Declining" , "degenerate" , "Reactionary" , "inverse" , "Going back" .)